Can the Practices Established in the Caliphate of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq رضي الله عنه Be Called Sunnah?
Source: Fatāwā Amanpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amanpuri
❖ Question:
Can the practices that were introduced and established during the caliphate of Sayyidunā Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq رضي الله عنه be referred to as Sunnah?
❖ Answer:
Yes, the actions and practices instituted by the Rightly Guided Caliphs (al-Khulafāʾ al-Rāshidūn) are considered Sunnah.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
عليكم بسنتي وسنة الخلفاء الراشدين المهديين
Hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs after me.
(Sunan Abī Dāwūd: 4607; Sunan al-Tirmidhī: 2676; Musnad Aḥmad 4/126 — authentic chain)
❖ Authentication of the Ḥadīth
- Imām al-Tirmidhī رحمه الله: ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ
- Imām Ibn Ḥibbān رحمه الله: ṣaḥīḥ (al-Iḥsān 5)
- Ḥāfiẓ al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī رحمه الله: ṣaḥīḥ (Ittibāʿ al-Sunnah: 2)
- Ḥāfiẓ al-Bazzār رحمه الله: thābit ṣaḥīḥ (Jāmiʿ Bayān al-ʿIlm wa Faḍlihi 3306)
- Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr رحمه الله: thābit (Jāmiʿ Bayān al-ʿIlm wa Faḍlihi 2306)
- Imām al-Ḥākim رحمه الله: ṣaḥīḥ, without any defect (al-Maʿrifah 1/95), and al-Dhahabī رحمه الله agreed.
- Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī رحمه الله: a sound narration from the ḥadīth of the Shāmīs (al-Mustakhraj 1/36).
- Al-Baghawī رحمه الله: ḥasan (Sharḥ al-Sunnah 102).
- Ibn Kathīr رحمه الله: Abū Nuʿaym and al-Dughūlī authenticated it, and Shaykh al-Islām al-Anṣārī said it is one of the best and strongest aḥādīth from the Shāmī narrations.
(Tuḥfat al-Ṭālib, p. 36)
Conclusion:Yes, the practices of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq رضي الله عنه — and all the Rightly Guided Caliphs — are part of the Sunnah. The Prophet ﷺ himself commanded the Ummah to adhere to their Sunnah alongside his own.
